R & R

I'm visiting my folks for a few days to catch a little break from my usual responsibilities. It is awesome. I've been away from home for three days now, and I think this is the longest time I've spent away from my children with no particular agenda. I sleep as late as I want, plan only as far in advance as I want to, and don't have to take care of anyone but myself.

I have never realized how demanding it is to be on call 24 hours a day.

My children are reasonably happy, reasonably well behaved for their age. We have a respectable number of good days, when everyone gets along pretty well and nobody does anything appalling. But it occurred to me last night that if each of us -- me and each small boy -- has one bad day a week, then more than half of every week is occupied by someone's attitude problem.

So I will enjoy my R & R. This morning I woke up to find the table set for breakfast, my parents sitting meditatively on the back porch, the sun shining and the birds chirping.

Thank you, God, for quiet gifts.

True Things

1. Writing for this blog requires me to have a sense of humor about my life.
2. Depending on your perspective, a Wisconsin winter with three boys too small to dress themselves or reliably follow directions can be hilarious or depressing. Or both.
3. I recently read, again, one of my all-time favorite books: Ellen Foster by Kaye Gibbons.
4. During a horrid scene starring her father, ten-year-old Ellen muses that "If I had seen this on television he might have looked funny but since it was me and real life I could not see the humor."
5. I understand how Ellen feels.
6. Summer is here, and I think seeing the humor might come with it.